I like to think about each day as a series of microdecisions, and hope that I mostly make microdecisions that make my kids and my family a priority. And eventually it won’t be the kids schedule we’re balancing, but maybe it’ll be the awesome backyard landscaping and garden plans. Or a boat at a lake cottage that needs to be restored.
What is a microdecision? It could be the decisions that are mundane and every day. Or it might be a decision that you make in a reactive manner, quickly and reflexively. An example of a mundane microdecision is, “Do I work past 5:30 or do I head home and start a healthy dinner for my family so when my husband walks in the door after picking up two kids and driving for 45 minutes, it smells like a decent meal is ready?” Some days that’s a split second microdecision. Decide to stay and get a bit more work done, or go home to get a good start on the evening?
There are decisions that I consider to be in between micro and macro, such as the time I was in an important set of all-day meetings to work on user roles that will be using our new XML editor and CMS system for our move to DITA. I got a phone call from my husband who had graciously prioritized my meetings over his work schedule and taken our 3-year-old to the doctor because he was limping and complaining that his leg hurt after a tumble on his tricycle in our driveway. Sure enough, our son needed Xrays and I decided that I had to leave the meetings in order to be there for the both while he waited for the Xrays. Since I was 34 weeks pregnant at the time, I couldn’t go into the Xray room with my son, but at least I could entertain him in the waiting room and be there when he was done.
These situations are the type of decisions you’re faced with as a working parent. I’m incredibly fortunate to have a husband who’s a true partner in raising kids and is willing to trade priorities with me while making his microdecisions also.
But there comes a time when a macrodecision comes up. In my case, I was offered an exciting new job with the additional bonus of a 30-hour work week with full benefits. Plus the job is at a company that is doing structured authoring and offers customer relationship management and lots of other infrastructure for member management, even social media for their users, who are busy running professional organizations like the STC. See the Advanced Solutions website for more information.
I’m the kind of working mom who wants to love her work and at the end of the work day, face my kids and say, “Mom did cool stuff at work today!” So this macrodecision made perfect sense when I prioritized both my kids and being able to communicate my own excitement about the work to be done.
BMC has offered me so many neat opportunities and writing for this blog is just one of the tasks that I will miss here. But I have started blogging at www.justwriteclick.com and I hope you will subscribe to that feed and continue the conversation there.